Right to Access Environmental Impact Information Must Not Be Lost to Brexit

The right to access public bodies’ environmental impact information must not “fall through the cracks of the Brexit process,” the NMA has said today in a letter to Secretary for Exiting the European Union David Davis.

The News Media Association has written to Mr Davis to seek assurances that the public’s right to access environmental impact information, which has been used by journalists for stories in the public interest, will be protected in full as the UK leaves the European Union.

The EU’s Environmental Information Regulations 2004 were incorporated into UK law under the authority of the European Communities Act 1972, which could be repealed as part of the Brexit process.

“There does not appear to be any other piece of domestic legislation to give them authority so presumably if the 1972 Act goes, so do the regulations,” said NMA legal, policy and regulatory affairs advisor Lucy Gill

“I would be grateful to learn what plans the Government has to ensure that this legislation does not fall through the cracks of the Brexit process,” Lucy added. 

The regulations have been instrumental in bringing to light important information such as stories on the Prince of Wales’s lobbying correspondence with Ministers and the disclosure of the risk register for HS2.